I pushed my hair away from my neck, peering up at him in invitation. He watched me, a sad smile lifting his generous lips.
“I can find another to feed from, Laura. You need your strength.”
I growled low in my throat, hating that he’d even consider feeding from another woman. Possession burned red-hot through me, and I snapped my teeth together hard. His glacier blue eyes rested on the exposed soft column of my throat. Fangs exploded from his gums, and I shivered without hiding it.
“You are mine,” he whispered hoarsely. “I will fuck no other now that you are with me. I don’t think you’re ready to feed me though, little wolf. You are yet to finish your transformation.”
“If you feed from anyone else, I will rip their fucking throat out,” I hissed, and then winced from the murderous tone that had dripped from my lips. His brows tightened together on his forehead, and he kneeled before me. His hands smoothed my hair away from my face before his lips brushed against mine.
“Fine, but we may end up fucking again because everything inside of you is burning to carry my son in your fertile womb, sweet girl. Drinking blood is an intimate act, and there is no separating it from being so.”
“And yet you would have fed from another?” I accused unable to stop the anger that burned through me at the idea of him with anyone else.
“To keep you strong and healthy, Laura, I’d do whatever it takes,” he admitted, cradling my face between his hands. “From the moment I first saw you, I have never wanted another woman. I have craved you and you alone since the first moment you allowed me to kiss you upon the shores of your homeland. I’ve loved you since the moment you slapped me for doing something so human that it melted the ice which encased your precious heart,” he murmured before his mouth lowered, hovering over my throat. His fangs pushed through my flesh, causing heat to throb at my core.
“I love you, too, Viking.” It was a whisper, barely audible against the pull of my blood. He backed up, staring at me with blood dripping from his lips. “I love you, and it doesn’t stop, ever. I may not like you, but I never stop loving you. I’m leaving with Avery, Braydon. I will protect you from myself, even if doing so rips me apart.”
He knelt back on his haunches, staring at me. “Leaving me won’t stop it, Laura.”
“Neither will me becoming something else, Braydon. You can’t stop it from coming for us, and I am in love with you. I don’t know when it started, but I feel it, just as I feel the curse starting to unfold. You may not be berserker, but you are hybrid. You can still shred me and murder me easily. It’s easier this way. You have to let me go.”
“You’re my mate. My soulmate, but you’re also the mate I chose to be my queen.”
“I’m also mid-change, unable to use magic, and in the middle of a bayou with a curse that has surpassed every cure I have ever tried to stop it unfolding. I might as well be chained to a bed with my cunt bared for you to destroy, because I assure you, it will be what happens.”
“Am I ravishing you? Am I hurting you?” he asked gently, staring at me through beseeching eyes.
“Not yet, but why wait for it to happen? Do you want to have to be forced to murder me? I assure you, there’s nothing that comes with the victory besides utter sorrow and pain. There’s no adrenaline rush from the kill, only a sense of loss so deep and painful that you no longer care what befalls you. I never celebrated your death. I mourned you so many times I was sure it would lessen, and yet each time, I am bereaved with guilt and sadness so profoundly horrid that I don’t wish to live without you. I don’t want that for you. I want you to live, to have a life that fulfills you. I want you to experience fatherhood and know what it is like to be loved. You get none of that with me. You get the rush of falling in love, and the moment we start to fall, it turns dark and deadly.”
“You are not asking me what I want, Laura Aria Cheveron. I want all that with you. I want babies with bright emerald eyes that glow with happiness as their mother’s do. I want little redheaded girls who knock boys on their asses, who smile so fucking brightly from within that it’s magic on its own. I want you. I want to live with you, to create a life with you. If it isn’t with you, I don’t fucking want it.”
I sobbed and fell to my knees before him, kissing him as tears rolled down his cheeks with his anger at what we would once again be denied.
“You can’t have me, because she will never allow you to. Don’t you see it, Viking? The veil is coming down. Even without my magic, I can sense her here with us. You may have found a loophole from the curse, but she will stop us.” I kissed him hard, holding onto him as giant sobs tore through me.
Knocking sounded at the door, and he stood, pulling me with him. Outside, the moon was full, and eeriness had settled over the wolves, witches, and vampires. In the middle of the yard sat an altar, a Samhain altar to the Goddess Hecate. Mary, who I guessed was Braydon’s witch, stood in front of it, turning to stare at me in awe.
“Time is up, Braydon. They’re here. She must choose who she is to become now.”
“Wait, wait a fucking minute,” Avery snapped harshly. “She was born a witch, and therefore cannot alter who she is. She is my family!” she cried.
“Does changing who and what she will become change any of that for you, Avery Cheveron?” Mary asked gently. “She will die without her magic, and yet now she is strong enough to choose her path. She can become hybrid and live through everything this world can throw at her. I have given her everything she needs to survive her mother’s return.”
“Laura, come with me,” Avery demanded, extending her hand to me.
I looked beyond Avery to where the shadows danced invitingly. Ghosts stood at the barrier to the camp, among them my mother’s wispy form. Emerald eyes that loathed with a deep hatred watched me, waiting for the last of the veil between worlds to drop. Her hair and dress soaked in the water from the river I’d cursed her to endlessly drown within sizzled as droplets rained from her to the earthen floor of the bayou.
“They’re coming,” I whispered, watching a silver-eyed male who stared at my mother intensely before his gaze turned, taking in my tiny form. He lifted his nose to the air as if he could smell the proof of my mating with Braydon and then tossed his head back, laughing loudly. He was huge, reaching seven feet in height easily. Powerful arms covered in runes and silver torques marked his royalty.
I didn’t need a fortune teller to tell me who he was. The way my mother stared back at him with malice told me everything. My father was here; my parents were here to take me to hell with them.
“Run, Braydon,” I whispered, the words barely audible above the blood pounding in my ears.
Avery turned, lifting her hands as lightning crashed down around us. Fires ignited in the shape of a pentagram, locking the dead out of the area we stood. Her wide, horrified eyes, held mine and yet the call of magic slithered through me. I turned, staring at the silver hue of Mary’s aura; the familiarity of the magic she held beckoned to me.
“You can have it back once you have chosen your path, sweet girl,” she crooned. “I have removed the curses against you, all but the one that marked your soul.”
“Traitorous whore. You’re nothing but a slut who breeds with a monster,” my mother hissed, her voice echoing through the bayou in layers that shivered down my spine. Her eyes condemned me, and pain slithered around my heart as if she was crushing it.
“What does that make you then, mother?” I asked, watching her face contort with hatred. “You have lied to me for my entire life. I slaughtered your enemies without question, fed by your lies of what they would do to us. You told me the Vikings hunted us, and so must be slaughtered before they came inland, and I did. I slaughtered entire armies of them at your behest. I slaughtered wolves because you told me how they hurt you. My sweet mother, raped and brutalized by their hand, and to prevent them from breedi
ng other witches, I slaughtered entire packs. The truth of it was, you fucked one. You, a Cheveron witch, had lain with one that you forced to be yours. You created me by breeding one, didn’t you? I am not a traitor, nor have I ever been. I am witch, but I am so much more.” My face transformed while she stared at me. My eyes turned into emerald fire as fangs clicked into place, sliding from my gums. Lines spread from my eyes as they darkened, glowing with what lay right beneath the surface: my wolf, my hybrid that ached to slaughter the woman who gave me life.
“You’re an abomination!” she screamed.
“She’s beautiful,” the Viking countered hoarsely. “It must piss you off that the child you stole and kept hidden from me has now become what you tried to create when you took my seed, witch,” he laughed coldly. “Part witch, part hybrid lycan,” he mused through blue lips. His features were encrusted in ice, and yet he didn’t look at me with hate or loathing. This strange creature that I’d never known looked at me through proud eyes.
“I will end you, Laura,” my mother laughed coldly. “But first, I will take the one thing you crave most in this world from you.” She tapped on the invisible barrier that Avery was holding in place, her features pinched with strain.
My eyes slid to Mary, needing the magic that she held to assist Avery in keeping the protective barrier in place. The problem was until the hex Thea had placed was ended, I couldn’t get my magic back. I wasn’t fully transformed into a hybrid yet either, which left me powerless to do anything to protect Braydon. Avery and Hope had figured out how to fix their end of the hex, but mine was still in play, leaving me magic less.
“Blood of my blood, I send you back from which you have come. Blood of my blood, I send you back from which you escaped, to the underworld below, to the depths of hell I send thee…” I uttered, feeling nothing stir within my soul. My gaze swung to Braydon’s, and he nodded as if he knew what I would do.
The barrier hummed with the immense magic my mother wielded against it, and my throat closed with the reality of what was happening. Braydon had ended the curse, but only partially. He’d allowed her free passage from hell because of the thinning walls of Samhain. He’d unknowingly brought her right to us because the terms of the curse had been altered.
I couldn’t save him without my magic, nor would I be able to defend him with being a hybrid. My mother was one of the strongest witches the world had ever created, and she was here now. She was a soul that couldn’t be killed nor banished to the depths of hell by anyone but me. I had to send her back from where she had come, and I held no magic to do so.
“Avery,” I whispered, knowing that she could hear me. “I love you; you’re the best bitch anyone could have asked to be friends with. Tell Hope that I love her and that she will become the best Queen the Witches of the North have ever been ruled by. Braydon, my sweet Viking, I wish we had gotten our forever.”
“Don’t do it,” he snapped thickly, his eyes promising everything would be okay, but they wouldn’t be. “The barrier is holding,” he urged.
“Live, live for both of us, my love. Have babies, pretty blue-eyed babies that you can love,” I sobbed, turning to look away from him to where my mother’s ghastly form stared at my mate, continuing to tap against the barrier. “I have loved you since the moment your eyes held mine, too. You are my soulmate and my world. I will love you from beyond, and death will not change that,” I promised.
“You don’t get to die, you little whore. You get to live! You carry my blood, my line. You will live, but this time he is coming with me!” she hissed.
“She’s pregnant,” Mary stated, her eyes glowing amber as she took in my middle. “Braydon, you need to get into the house, and you need to do it now. It’s protected!” she screamed as the barrier shattered, and my mother rushed toward him with a singular purpose in her eyes.
“I agree,” I whispered, accepting the darkness without hesitation.
“No!” Avery screamed, sensing what I’d just done. “Fuck!”
Evil magic slithered through me, contorting my body as the vile promises of retribution rocketed through my mind and heart.
“Blood of my blood, return to the depths of the river from which you’ve come. Blood of my blood, I banish thee from this world!” I shouted, causing lightning to crash against the ground. “I banish you back from which you came. I banish you from this plane. Hecate hear my call, and take this which back from where she came, hold her in the curse I of her bane, I banish you from this world, mother.”
She wailed a blood-curdling shriek as dark creatures rose from the ground, grasping her dress. Emerald green eyes held my black ones. Her smile was victorious as she realized what I had done to protect the man I loved from her vile touch.
“I’ll be waiting for you, daughter,” she cackled.
“I won’t be coming to hell with you, mother,” I whispered, turning an apologetic, saddened smile to where Avery stood beside Braydon and Conner. “I am given, I am wed. I love you both,” I cried as I lifted my hand, watching a dagger sail through the air before pain shot through me. Blood exploded from my lips. “I choose death,” I whimpered, sensing the moment the darkness realized what I had done. Pain ripped through me, yanking my cells apart as the evilness of the shadows shrieked in denial at being unable to wield my vessel.
Braydon screamed, pushing the wolves that held him away from me as oily magic slipped free of my dying form. I hit the ground hard, jolting as it ripped apart my insides. It was trying to hold on to my soul, leeching against it as it began to leave my vessel. Blackness swam in my vision while I watched Braydon fighting to reach me.
Death wasn’t the worst thing to come for me. Living without the man I loved, now that was a fate worse than anything else I could imagine. I felt Avery beside me, her hand covering the gaping hole in my chest as tears slipped from her eyes.
“You bitch! You promised you wouldn’t leave me.”
“I love you…too, Avery,” I muttered as blood filled my throat, and my sight went dark.
Chapter 18
Braydon
I placed Laura on the bed; her blood coated my hands and body. Avery held her soul to her body while Mary held the bleeding from the dagger Laura had pushed through her own heart at bay.
“She’s dying,” Avery sobbed, fat tears sliding down a young face that bespoke of a lifetime of pain and anguish.
“She has to die,” Mary explained.
“You’re both crazy! Why would you ever want her to reach for the darkness? It is pure evil, and it ripped her apart trying to hold on! You killed her.”
“It had to be that way to end the curse,” I explained.
“You don’t get to decide for her!” she screamed, her inner panic matching mine.
“No, she has to decide what she will become. She had to die to live her life without being controlled by her mother’s curse, witch,” I growled, unable to prevent it from escaping past the pain my wolf was in. Her vampire stepped closer, ready to defend his mate. “Laura shouldn’t live in fear of me returning. I was spared from the curse by Mary, but Laura would have had to endure it for the rest of her time on this plane of existence. I allowed her to be hexed to remove her magic because it prevented her from turning into what she is. She is a purebred hybrid, much like the ghost who watched us from the corner.”
“If she wanted to be a hybrid, then why did you have to chain her to this room? If she wanted you, why has she hidden from you with me? You cause her nothing but pain! Every fifty years, I watch her walk away from me, and when she returns, she is broken. Do you hear me? I have to watch her fight to even brush her fucking hair. She wishes for death after she takes your life.”
“You think I want her to die? I have waited lifetimes to be able to love her. I have to live with that, knowing that once I do love her, and she loves me, she has to kill me. I did what I had to do to save h
er. And she was never chained, guarded at first to prevent her from leaving the room, but not chained.”
“Does she look saved? She is dying!” Avery hissed through tears that choked her words. “You killed her, Braydon.”
“She isn’t dead yet,” Mary snapped. “She is in between. She’s hovering in this room, deciding which life she wants. Whatever she chooses, well, that is up to her. She is both witch and hybrid, but she will only emerge from death as one or another. She can no longer be both. Laura has to make a sacrifice, as Braydon did. He allowed his berserker to be sacrificed for her. Now she must make a sacrifice for him, to pay the cost to rid her soul of the curse.”
“She shouldn’t have to choose between him and magic. Its insanity and it will be like ripping her to pieces. You can’t want that for her.”
“No, I don’t want that for her. She shouldn’t have to choose, but that isn’t our choice. She should have murdered me on that shore so long ago and lived. She chose me, Avery. She chose me, and by doing so, she accepted the curse. Do you know how she found you, witch? She felt the call of your blood, the familiarity of it when I was falling in love with her. She was pretending not to love me, and yet the curse had been triggered. I helped her clean your wounds. The oozing puss from the multitude of putrid bites that covered every fucking inch of your flesh,” I hissed softly. “I sucked the poison out of each one of them and fed you my blood to heal it while she and I worked to save you. It took three weeks for the madness to slither over me that time. You slumbered through your nightmares as I raped her in the room beside yours. She never saw it as being raped, but I took it from her. I fucked her body until the life left her pretty green eyes. In berserker form, my only thought was to be deeper into the tightness her body offered. Cursed to fucking destroy her cunt, and anyplace else I would fit. Imagine loving someone so much that you would die for them. Then imagine seeing from inside your own mind as you rip them apart, fucking them in every way. She wouldn’t do it, grasping onto whatever chance at a life she thought we could have. So you can hate me, witch, but I will never allow myself to hurt her again. I’d rather die than do that to her. I’m ending it, and if she leaves me, so fucking be it. She will live, and now she can be with whoever she wants to be with. Before, she couldn’t have sex without me. Mary undid that curse because I asked her to do it. I want Laura to live, to experience life even if it is without me.”
Wicked Hexes Page 14
